The American Civil Liberties Union is sounding the alarm over the possibility the IRS’ Criminal Tax Division may be snooping on Americans’ emails without a warrant.
A document dump the ACLU received in response to a Freedom of Information Act request reveals the IRS “has long taken the position that [it] can read your emails without a warrant.”
The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals decision in United States v. Warshak (2010) requires that “the government…obtain a probable cause warrant before compelling email providers to turn over messages.”
Read: Offshore tax evasion in Treasury, IRS crosshairs
The ACLU notes the IRS has not provided clarity on whether it abides by the Warshak decision across the country or only within the Sixth Circuit.
“The documents the ACLU obtained make clear that, before Warshak, it was the policy of the IRS to read people’s email without getting a warrant. Not only that, but the IRS believed that the Fourth Amendment did not apply to email at all.”
Read the rest here.
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IRS issues guidelines for tax compliance